St Mary's Church Launton

General description of Launton

Launton is a village just east of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The 2011 census recorded a population of 1,154. The village dates back to Saxon times and the beautiful church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St Mary’s) has been a Grade 1 listed building since 1966. Our parish includes the village of Launton, a part of the Glory farm Estate, Bicester Heritage and the Wyndham Hall Residential Home. Our local shop has extended, and we also have a Farm Shop, two pubs and a Sports and Social Club where many sports teams play. Launton has a thriving Church of England Primary school and the village has had new housing in small infill areas as well as larger developments such as Yew Tree Close, plus more recently, the Mulberry Homes development. Overall, Launton is a vibrant community with lots of activities and community spirit. See https://launton.org/ for more information.

The Church of St Mary’s

The Church is on the west side of Launton and there is a footpath that runs through the churchyard. The Bell tower has a ring of 6 bells and the Churchyard is open.

St Mary’s church family is inclusive and embraces everyone and this has been shown to the full during the pandemic with regular communication and visits when required. Our Church is welcoming to all while preserving traditions and our Christian heritage. St Mary’s is mindful of the groups around us and has strong links with the school. We have a solid core of people who are extremely proactive and very committed, including our two churchwardens and PCC members as well as the wider church family. We have 43 people on our Electoral Roll. The Church building is in generally good repair and the last Quinquennial report in 2017 didn’t identify any major issues, but future work needs to include serious consideration of a more efficient heating system, kitchenette and WC facilities.

The Parish Hall is close and adjacent to the school. A small committee manages the hall and is working towards leasing the hall to the Parish Council who will then undertake necessary improvements to the hall.

St Mary's Church Financial Overview.

Financially, 2020 was not a good year for St Mary's Church, however with successful appeal letters, donations and some fundraising events the year ended better than we expected. We managed to pay £7000 of our Parish Share which was £1000 over our estimate. Our normal fund raising events ( e.g. Fete, Quiz and Harvest Lunch) were all cancelled in 2020 but we managed to organise 2 trails ( Scarecrow and Window Wonderland at Christmas) and this proved to be popular, Covid secure and financially successful.

Things have improved over the first half of 2021 with the return to live services which has resulted in some generous collections. St Mary's clearly has some way to go in order to meet all of its financial obligations but there is room for cautious optimism.

Life of the Church

The life of our Church has been altered due to the pandemic, and services for the villages have mostly been on Zoom organised by Rev’d Peter Wright. At the end of March 2021 some services such as Holy Communion, Morning Prayer and Evensong returned to church (under strict Covid 19 compliance regulations). Recently we have returned to having live organ music and look forward to being able to join in the singing. We also look forward to hearing our Church bells being rung again by our small, but dedicated, bell ringing group again. Our communications team have related news and service details through our village magazine Launton Lines and on our Facebook page, as well as working towards improving our site on “A Church Near You.”

Mission and Outreach

We want to continue to reach out to families and young people through the Community café which we hope to restart this September with the help of a COMF grant. We will aim to nurture faith across the parish in new and creative ways and aim to connect with other groups and organisations in the community and maintain, as well as establish, new links.

Our Vision

Part of our Vision is to increase our regular congregations by further developing our services. This will include re- building our family service back in church as we have a very strong family service team and also to continue to develop our strong links with young families through Launton’s Primary School, and the Community Cafe. In the long term we would like to consider whether we can have facilities added to our Church and we hope the newly set up “Friends” group may be able to help with fund raising for this.


Get in touch

Revd Sarah Mortimer

The Office
St Edburgs Church
Church Street
BICESTER

OX26 6AU
Parish Office
(01869) 323458

Our website

What's on

Good Friday Reflection

Occuring
for 1 hour
Venue
St Mary's Church Launton
Address
St Mary's Church Bicester Road Launton Bicester, OX25 6EP, United Kingdom

2pm-3pm Friday 29th March

Revd Sarah Mortimer arrived at the end of January 2024

Church_news

Safeguarding

Our parish of Launton is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults from harm. We follow the House of Bishops guidance and policies and have our own Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO). Our Diocese of Oxford’s safeguarding pages contain vital links and information including contacts for the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor who advises our PSO. If you are concerned that a child or adult has been harmed or may be at risk of harm please contact the PSO or the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor. Call 01865 208 295 or email [email protected]. If you have immediate concerns about the safety of someone, please contact the police and your local authority’s children or adult social care services.